Book Review: Case Closed Volume 93
I hope everyone is doing, especially with the start of a new year and
all.
Things have been
alright here, except for an incident that took place over the
weekend, but I am still glad that I can still do what I like.
A while back, I was
looking through the titles that I follow, and I was able to secure
copies of a few of the latest installments.
Recently, one of
those books came without me realizing it, so it is time to get off my
butt and take care of things.
Today, I will be
reviewing that title, which is called Case
Closed Volume 93 by Gosho Aoyama.
As I have given a
series synopsis in an earlier
post, I will not go over it again.
Jimmy and Harley
have found themselves dragged into yet another case, as they came
across a person that just got stabbed and they need to figure out who
was responsible.
However, even if
they solve that case, there are more cases to come Jimmy’s way,
such as Eva issuing an SOS, a fire erupting at a camp site, and the
murder of a kendo referee, as well as a meeting between two people
who might be the second in command of Black Org.
While the previous
volume was okay in my book, that does not mean that things can
get better or worse, so I have to keep myself on my toes.
After reading this,
I have to say that I really enjoyed this volume.
From the moment that
I opened up this book and started to read the first few pages, I
found myself engrossed enough that I did not want to stop reading for
any reason.
As I have stated a
countless number of times before, one of the most important things in
a work of fiction is the beginning, as the beginning is supposed to
pull the audience into the world of the work, thereby giving them the
temporary escape that they desire.
While this can be
accomplished through various means, depending on the genre and the
medium used to present the work, Detective Conan, like many
other manga, was originally published as part of a serial
publication, which means that it needs to start in a way that makes
sense based upon how the previous installment ended.
In the previous
volume, after one of the worst cases the series has yet to see at
this point, we see Kazuha talking on the phone with Rachel before she
shows up at the office with Harley in tow.
Not long after
Harley shows up, he and Jimmy go to the cafe below the Moore
Detective Agency and encounter Amuro and mysterious man, with the
whole thing ending on a panel showing the discovery of a person
having been stabbed.
Even though I was
not particularly happy to see things end this way, due to how tired I
am of volumes ending when the case is practically over, with only the
reveal left to be covered, this kind of ending was a lot better than
those because the incident just occurred, thus allowing for more
anticipation in the next installment than the anxiousness to find out
whether a person was right or wrong, since that is part of the fun
fans of detective, mystery, and crime fiction seek.
In this volume,
which I did have a bit of a tough time accessing this time, it picks
up right from where the previous volume left off, with the victim on
the ground, and Jimmy and Harley take a look at things, to see what
they are dealing with before going right into the investigation
phase.
This may not exactly
be the greatest beginning to a volume, but it still feels like I got
some pay off in my excitement to get involved in another case and
that is something that fans of detective, mystery, and crime fiction
desire, regardless of how experienced they are with those genres.
If Gosho Aoyama and
Shogakukan, or whoever they had put this volume together, started the
first chapter of this volume in any other way, I doubt my excitement
would have been as high as it was, thereby making me wish I had
forgotten that I had preordered this volume and that it was to come
out this month.
Fortunately, things
started off on a good foot here, which makes me feeling like giving
them some high praise.
Hopefully, future
volumes will be able to start off this well, especially considering
that it feels like Detective Conan may be nearing its end in
the Japanese releases, as the cast has yet to figure out who Rum is
and there might be signs of the boss himself appearing, but I will
not be surprised if the trend of having the beginning of a volume
feature the reveal of the last volume’s culprit.
I also liked how
there was a bit of reference to the old FUNimation dub of Detective
Conan in this volume.
Now, I will not say
that this is a perfect one to one reference, as I do not think it
matters all that much to Gosho Aoyama how that dub had gone, even
though I am still annoyed about how episodes 96
and 118
were were presented, but it was more of something that was brought up
in the case that started this volume off.
After the police
arrived and began their investigation of the crime, the mysterious
guy that Jimmy and Harley met in the previous volume speaks up,
saying that a hypothetical scenario that the suspects brought up was
impossible.
Not long after he
speaks up, Takagi makes the comment that he had not given the
authorities his name, to which the man says his name is Shinichi Wada
and works in the medical field, leading Harley to which Harley tells
Jimmy that the name sounds awfully like his.
Yes, this gets
confusing, which is why it is nice of Viz to include a note regarding
this for people that only follow the official English releases of
Detective Conan from Viz and
FUNimation, but this is the start of where the reference to
the old dubs begins.
Later on, when the
concludes, Takagi wonders where Shinichi Wada went and Rachel tells
him that it was an alias and that, like Detective Conan in
North America, the Sherlock Holmes stories suffered the fate
of having many of the characters getting a name and setting change
when they were originally brought over to Japan, with Shinichi Wada
being Watson and Tairoku Komuro being Sherlock.
Even though I cannot
verify these details exactly, especially because I cannot read
Japanese, it does make me chuckle that Detective Conan and
Sherlock would face such similar problems to each other, seeing as
the Sherlock fans in Japan at the time would likely have problems
with English based clues, just like the people reading Viz Media’s
Detective Conan releases and watching the FUNimation dubs of
the first 123 episodes and six movies would have issues with the
Japanese based clues, especially in the second
movie.
If those were not
funny enough to think about, both Detective Conan and Sherlock
also ended up being fixed eventually, with FUNimation being allowed
to keep the Japanese settings in the last four movies they dubbed and
then TMS giving the characters back their original names entirely in
the dubs they commissioned Bang Zoom, of Rurouni Kenshin fame,
for the specials and movies they did.
If this had not
cropped up in this volume, I would have no issues with the things
presented, as things were mostly good throughout this case alone, but
I do not think things would stand out all that much.
Thankfully, Gosho
Aoyama decided to include this bit of trivia about Sherlock, which
added a surprising detail and a bit of a surprise in how it reminds
me of living through a similar event with Detective Conan,
making me want to praise him for the inclusion.
Hopefully, there
will be more instances like this in future volumes, but if the series
is as close to seeing a conclusion as I think it is, this might be
the one and only time we get something like this.
Another thing that I
really liked was how the case that ended the previous volume was not
the only thing that was seemingly continued in this volume.
Now, you guys might
be groaning saying that of course there would be more things from the
past that crops up because there are big mysteries carried on
throughout the series, such as the identity of Rum, which is still a
mystery in the Japanese releases, beyond the fact that we know who
Rum is disguised as currently, but there are times in series where
things happen and then we never see anything remotely regarding them
outside of things just happening, like the events of the Bell Tree
express arc from volume
78 that was preceded by the trip from volume
77 and Shukichi being confirmed the middle brother of Akai and
Sera in volume
88 that was preceded by the fact that Okiya and the mysterious
girl showed interest in his shogi match in volume
85.
Here, however, we
not only pick up from right where things left off in the case that
ended the previous volume, but we also pick up at a moment that seems
to take place not long after the case that immediately preceded it.
Back in the previous
volume, before Jimmy and Harley met the man who initially called
himself Shinichi Wada, we see a case that takes place at Wakasa’s
home that involves a professional golfer and the case ultimately ends
with two of the three current Rum suspects reading an article talking
about how she took down the culprit.
In this volume,
after the second case in the volume, we see Kuroda thinking about
Wakasa and the case of the deceased shogi player, who was first
mentioned in volume
89, before being interrupted by Inspector Santos and given the
suggestion to go on a camping trip, where Wakasa was said to be going
with Jimmy and the Junior Detective League.
From what I remember
seeing in the previous volume, I was wondering why Wakasa would
capture the interest of two of the Rum suspects, but I thought that
something would just happen, like it has in almost every other
instance, regardless of how many volumes came in between.
However, seeing as
this line was almost immediately picked up with Kuroda looking into
and thinking about various things before our eyes, I found myself
very much interested in the case that was about to unfold, even
though I did remember that people were not too fond of this case and
I was livid about how the trick was practically given away in the
next episode
preview for the conclusion of the anime adaptation of the case,
as they had never done that before.
I thought that we
were going to finally get some leads on Rum here, to help narrow down
the suspect pool, and that was enough to make me want to forget what
happened in this case.
If things had played
out how they normally do, I might not have been as excited to revisit
a case many hated because of the simplicity and obviousness of the
trick employed, because I would have had more interest in the other
cases.
Fortunately, Gosho
Aoyama remembered that he had Kuroda looking at an article featuring
Wakasa and decided to flesh that out instead of leaving the
developments from that off screen.
The thing that
really caught my attention though were the funny moments to be found
in this volume.
Aside from the cases
to be found in the series, another thing that I like about Detective
Conan is the comedic moments that come up, as it helps to keep things
from getting too serious and keeps things lively.
At this point in the
series, the comedic moments can be said to be rather dull, as they
are just par for the course, but from time to time, there are things
that are quite funny for one reason or another, and, in this volume,
there were two.
The first one that
comes to my mind is the case involving Eva. In this case, after Jimmy
and the gang rescue Eva, they go to see a movie that Rickard was
initially not interested in, despite Yoko Okino being in it, and
Richard absolutely adored it, not realizing a character was based on
him, while Eva herself ripped it a new one for being as unrealistic
as Ace Attorney.
Once Eva finishes
her criticism, in how Yoko’s character would be in a lot of
trouble, from contempt of court to breach confidentiality, and acting
smug in court, Richard says that’s pretty much how she is.
Seeing all of this
play out, while not exactly new, since Yoko’s pieces in this series
are reflections on the series itself, much like how Terrance and
Phillip are about Trey Parker and Matt Stone in South Park, is
still pretty funny as it shows the series making fun of itself at
times, which helps to ease the boredom of this series.
The second thing
that I found funny is how Kuroda keeps calling Jimmy the brains
behind Sleeping Moore.
Now, we, as the
audience, do know that Jimmy is indeed the one solving the cases most
of the time and others have seen him to the things we typically see
him do, as well as the fact that a body shows up wherever Jimmy goes,
rather than Richard, but I do not exactly remember seeing Kuroda
notice the small things that Jimmy does.
However, during the
case where he ends up going to the same camp site as Jimmy and the
others, the officer he summons does not bat an eye when Kuroda calls
Jimmy that nickname, only acknowledging that the boy helped him in
the past and asking Jimmy if he noticed anything.
Seeing this play out
had me both chuckling and wondering if the entire police department
knew that secret that Jimmy tries to hide.
If they have not,
then it is still kind of funny because he does such a bad job of
hiding that he is the one solving cases that even Black Org should be
catching on, yet Rum is focused on other things at the moment.
However, if they
have, my laughter would be coming from a place of wondering what took
these guys so long.
If these moment had
not been present in this volume, I would have been very much
disappointed, as there was not too much else that really caught my
eye, thus decreasing my statisfaction with the volume as a whole.
Thankfully, Gosho
remembered to add in some funny bits, which helps make me feel like
giving him some more praise for a job well done.
Hopefully, moments
like these will keep cropping up, even once we finally reach the end
of the series, but seeing as much of the other comedic aspects have
grown stale, I would not be surprised if this also ended up becoming
another footnote.
Outside of those
things, I cannot think of too much else that I really liked, at least
that could stand on its own and as much as what I mentioned here.
Because the
beginning started off quite well, the Sherlock trivia made it seem
like Detective Conan‘s life in North America was similar to
Sherlock’s early existence in Japan, more than the events of the
case from the concluding chapter were continued in a seemingly
immediate followup, and there were both intentionally and
unintentionally funny moments made this a very decent read.
Although I liked
this book, there are some issues.
However, aside from
things that are too minor talk about, such as typos, there was only
one thing that really bugged me, which was how this volume began.
While I did praise
it just a bit ago, as it picked up things in the only way that really
made sense, when comparing it to the final chapter of the previous
installment, it also kind of felt confusing because we just see the
victim on the ground and Jimmy and Harley are checking on the guy,
which made me feel like I was missing something, even though I had
not missed anything.
Now, I will
acknowledge that finding the right point to end one installment and
begin another can be difficult, with ending the installment just
before a reveal being the easy way out, but the way the beginning
flows makes it feel like I would have gotten way more enjoyment out
of this had Viz closed off 2024 with this volume than its
predecessor, as there would not have been quite as much confusion as
there was.
If things had
started off with the police investigation phase, as I was expecting
it to start off with, despite the fact that the victim had not been
confirmed dead or alive until this volume, I would not have been as
confused and just went right into things.
However, because
Gosho Aoyama and Shogakukan, or whoever they had put this volume
together, decided to start things off here, it has the possibility of
creating confusion, which makes me feel like docking a few points.
This is another why
I think the series should return to the old pattern of letting
volumes start with brand new cases instead of leaving a case hanging
until the next installment, as it eliminates possible problems with
human memory and helps to give people a chance to start reading at
whatever volume they find, but since Viz is responsible for making
these releases over here, I implore them to start releasing these
volumes more frequently than every 3 or 4 months, as I do not want to
have another dead horse to beat in addition the volumes that end when
there is obviously only one chapter remaining.
Hopefully, this
issue is just a one time occurrence with these releases, because I
think Viz, Shogakukan, and Gosho Aoyama need to hear words of
encourahement, which will also help spread positive word of this
series, but considering how things are pretty bad already as we near
the end of the series, I would not be surpised I do end up having
another dead horse to deal with.
Thankfully, that was
the only real issue I had with this volume, so Gosho, Viz, and
Shogakukan can all walk away knowing that they did not do anything
terribly wrong.
Considering the fact
that there was quite a bit to like and nothing to really hate, except
for a beginning that can be kind of confusing, this was definitely
worth reading.
I mainly recommend
this to fans of Detective Conan, as they will like this the
most.
As for everyone
else, while this volume is not bad, the fact that it picks up on
things from the previous installment in the way that it does makes me
feel like recommending earlier volumes before picking this up.
If you liked this
review and would like to see more, please consider supporting me on
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or SubscribeStar,
so that I can continue following this series and maybe find more
worthwhile reads for you guys to check out.